5 ways customer support software can prepare you for anything

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Customer support software is one of the best tools agents have to solve the issues customers have with their products or services. The solution ensures support teams work together, combining knowledge and customer information to provide a five-star support experience. Many people view customer support as a problem solver, but the right software allows businesses and agents to take a proactive approach. Here are five ways customer support software can prepare you for anything:

1. Learn about customers through various channels 

Use the power of omnichannel to understand your customers better.

Knowing your customers as well as possible allows your business to provide them with excellent service, strengthening your working relationships. You’ll certainly acquire a lot of information during the sales process, but extensive customer support software goes above and beyond by collecting public information from a customer’s online profiles. This allows for a more intimate understanding of your customers and their business and history. With this insight, agents can better personalize their support with critical information they may not have obtained otherwise. For example, a LinkedIn profile reveals insight into a customer’s values or strategy. Such information helps agents understand how customers use your product and provides the foundation for better support.

“Proactive support is becoming the standard for businesses today.”

2. Observe unsatisfied customers before they leave
With the right support software, agents are alerted when a customer seems particularly dissatisfied. This allows reps to take a proactive approach, prioritizing the customer’s needs and anticipating their issues to rectify the situation. As customer experience consultant Adrian Swinscoe wrote recently, proactive support is becoming the standard for businesses today. It lowers costs, improves satisfaction, boosts customer engagement and retention and keeps companies competitive.

Businesses can choose which factors they use to measure customer satisfaction – variables include total number of tickets, frequency of support issues and average resolution time. A good method is to observe what your customers prioritize. For instance, some are willing to sacrifice time for an in-depth approach while others would rather get directly to the point.

3. Understand customers before they contact support

Support software helps businesses be proactive and improve customer satisfaction.

The right customer support solution details each customer’s purchase.It instantly shows agents which products, versions or features a customer owns or has access to, supplying key information before any issues arise. This also lets agents get started on open tickets without having to collect these details from customers.

They’re able to speed up the support process by reducing data entry and thereby improving the overall experience.

4. Alert customers to product updates or patches
Your customer support software tracks which tickets are associated with your company’s various products. It can also categorize these tickets into parent-child relationships. If a new version, update or bug patch fixes a particular ticket, support agents can see all other customers with the same product who are having a similar issue. They can then contact these customers and solve numerous tickets at once, again adopting a proactive approach.

“Customer support software can automatically categorize tickets based on various criteria.”

5. Observe how products perform at the support level. 
Agents sometimes observe a disproportionate number of tickets relating to one particular product. This indicates an issue with the service or software itself, and agents should alert developers in such cases. The product likely needs to be revised and updated, or developers need to work on a completely new solution altogether.

Luckily, customer support software can automatically categorize tickets based on various criteria, including product. Reps therefore don’t need to manually note such similarities. In addition, agents can observe the common uses and workarounds their customers use to tailor the product directly to their needs. Knowing these use cases helps developers create future solutions that more accurately serve their customers’ demands. 

The best customer approach is a proactive one, and the right software solutions help agents and businesses anticipate their customers’ needs. 

Republished with author's permission from original post.

Laura Ballam
Laura Ballam leads TeamSupport's marketing and sales development functions. Laura's passion for the customer experience guides her marketing decisions and fits perfectly with TeamSupport's customer-focused culture. Prior to joining the team at TeamSupport, Laura held multiple positions in marketing and sales support, including managing marketing and CRM for a global manufacturing company where she was responsible for developing and implementing the company's traditional and online marketing strategies in North and South America.

1 COMMENT

  1. Great article Laura, as a fellow live chat software provider we certainly agree that live chat is useful for monitoring visitors behaviour and being able step in when needed and adapt as they do http://goo.gl/oSZL5F

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